Lescallier’s texts were probably in error in stating that the four hundred ambassadors had all been put to death within a year. The ārNālithographed text, like that of Sir William Ouseley, gives us to understand that the envoys had been beheaded in the course of years. In Habicht’s Arabian text the King is represented as saying: “‘Come and look into this well;’ and Abū Temām beheld a well filled with the heads of the sons of Adam.”
_Page 103._ “The Ten Viziers finding ... their own importance and dignity reduced,” &c.—How true to human nature, and how applicable to the case of Abū Temām as well as to that of our young hero Bakhtyār, is the “saying of the sage,” as cited in the _Anvār-i Suhailī_ (ii, 3): “Whoever is unceasingly zealous in the service of the King quickly reaches the rank of admission to his favour, and whoever has become the intimate of the Sultan, all the friends and foes of the monarch become his enemies: the friends, through envy of his post and dignity; and the foes, by reason of his advising the King sincerely in matters of state and religion.”
_Page 103._ “Whose office was to rub the King’s feet.”—The Arabs (says Lane) are very fond of having their feet, and especially the soles, slowly rubbed with the hand; and this operation, which is one of the services commonly required of a wife or a female slave, is a usual mode of waking a person; as it is also of lulling a person to sleep. Thus, in the story of Maaroof (Lane’s _Arabian Nights_, iii, 721), “the damsel then proceeded to rub and press gently the soles of his feet until sleep overcame him.”
_Page 105._ “The King drew his scimitar, and cut off his head.”—Surely, an instance of “haste and precipitancy”—with a _vengeance_! This despot did not even acquaint his victim of the crime of which the lads had accused him. It had been probably otherwise with Abū Temām had his royal master shaped his conduct in “affairs of moment” after that of another king, of whom we read, in the _Anvār-i Suhailī_ (xiii, 3), that in order to moderate his anger, and judge cases like a king, a recluse gave him three letters, which he was to place in the hands of a faithful and confidential officer, who was to be permitted to read one of them to the King when he beheld symptoms of anger in his countenance, and should that not suffice to soothe his mind, the officer was to read the second letter, and the third, if the second did not tame his rebellious spirit. The contents of the three letters were to this effect: (1) While thou still retainest the power, do not place the reins of choice in the grasp of thy passions, for they will plunge thee into the whirlpool of everlasting destruction. (2) In the time of wrath be merciful to those in thy power, in order that in the hour of retribution thy superiors may be merciful to thee. (3) In issuing thy commands do not overstep the bounds of the law, and under no circumstances abandon what is just.